A woman at the next table says, perfectly, "I'll have what she's having." Everyone knows that line as a Nora Ephronbon mot. The ones that don't, well... I don't want what they're having, most likely.

If you don't know, Ephron was the wicked pen behind When Harry Met Sally..., Sleepless in Seattle andYou've Got Mail, among others, the kind of romantic comedies that make people wish romantic comedies were still a thing.

The former journalist also penned an autobiographical must-read novel, Heartburn, about her divorce from Carl Bernstein — yes, one half of the Woodward and Bernstein Watergate reporting team. Beyond her films, her wit survives her in several essay collections as well, all of which should be required reading for anyone with a brain. (Pardon the editorializing.)

And let me just say, while a sandwich that sets off my pleasure centers sounds wonderful, and I'll take two or three right now, what I'd really like to have is Ephron's way of saying the exact right thing, in the exact right way, at the exact right time.

1. "The amount of maintenance involving hair is genuinely overwhelming. Sometimes I think that not having to worry about your hair anymore is the secret upside of death."

2. "Maintenance is what you have to do just so you can walk out the door knowing that if you go to the market and bump into a guy who once rejected you, you won’t have to hide behind a stack of canned food. I don’t mean to be too literal about this."

“Oh, how I regret not having worn a bikini for the entire year I was twenty-six. If anyone young is reading this, go, right this minute, put on a bikini, and don’t take it off until you’re thirty-four."

On womanhood:

5. "Show me a woman who cries when the leaves turn in autumn and I'll show you a real assh*le.”

7. "Whatever you choose, however many roads you travel, I hope that you choose not to be a lady. I hope you will find some way to break the rules and make a little trouble out there. And I also hope that you will choose to make some of that trouble on behalf of women.” (from Wellesley College commencement speech)

On the joys of cooking and eating:

8. "You can never have too much butter — that is my belief. If I have a religion, that’s it. "

9. "When you are actually going to have your last meal, you’ll either be too sick to have it or you aren’t gonna know it’s your last meal and you could squander it on something like a tuna melt and that would be ironic... I feel it’s important to have that last meal today, tomorrow, soon.”

10. "What I love about cooking is that after a hard day, there is something comforting about the fact that if you melt butter and add flour and then hot stock, it will get thick! It’s a sure thing! It’s sure thing in a world where nothing is sure; it has a mathematical certainty in a world where those of us who long for some kind of certainty are forced to settle for crossword puzzles."

11.

"I don’t think any day is worth living without thinking about what you’re going to eat next at all times.”

"It's much easier to get over someone if you can delude yourself into thinking you never really cared that much."

15. “In my sex fantasy, nobody ever loves me for my mind."

16. “Sometimes I believe that love dies but hope springs eternal. Sometimes I believe that hope dies but love springs eternal. Sometimes I believe that sex plus guilt equals love, and sometimes I believe that sex plus guilt equals good sex. Sometimes I believe that love is as natural as the tides, and sometimes I believe that love is an act of will. Sometimes I believe that some people are better at love than others, and sometimes I believe that everyone is faking it. Sometimes I believe that love is essential, and sometimes I believe that only reason love is essential is that otherwise you spend all your time looking for it."

On the life of the mind:

17. "I am continually fascinated at the difficulty intelligent people have in distinguishing what is controversial from what is merely offensive." (from the essay, "Barney Collier’s Book")

18.

"Insane people are always sure that they are fine. It is only the sane people who are willing to admit that they are crazy.”

20. "So many of the conscious and unconscious ways men and women treat each other have to do with romantic and sexual fantasies that are deeply ingrained not just in society but in literature. The women's movement may manage to clean up the mess in society, but I don't know if it can clean up the mess in our minds."